Besides the love of music, rockstars have a soft spot for our four legged furry friends. With the help from so many artists and actors with their charitable donations of instruments and signed memorabilia, FUR & FEATHER ANIMAL SANCTUARY comes closer to breaking ground in the next year for the first fully solar and wind powered, no-kill animal sanctuary. The sanctuary will also provide the community with a low-cost animal clinic, education and cultural center.

Currently on the eBay auction block is a Yamaha bass signed by Bass-master BILLY SHEEHAN, guitar virtuoso JOHN 5’s famous 666 strap by Red Monkey from 5 tours with Rob Zombie signed and dated, OZZY’s autobiography “I AM OZZY” signed by OZZY, legendary ax-slinger STEVE VAI’S custom made silver outfit by famed rockstar couturier Terri King. It was worn on the Ultra Zone tour in the late 90’s, HALLOWEEN 2’s movie prop w/ signed Michael Myers photo from TYLER MANE, and a Schecter Diamond Series Delux guitar signed by ALL the mainstage bands from OZZfest 2006 including OZZY, ZAKK WYLDE, BLS, HATEBREED, DISTURBED, LACUNA COIL, SYSTEM OF A DOWN and more!

Adding in the next week to the auction will be 2 signed Ibanez guitars one from PAUL GILBERT and one from STEVE VAI, an Ernie Ball bass signed by BLASKO from Ozzy Osbourne’s band, and a Schecter Diamond Series guitar signed by horror Icons TYLER MANE (Michael Myers/Halloween 1&2) and DEREK MEARS (Jason Voorhees/Friday the 13th). More items coming!! Keep an eye out for additions of cool signed memorabilia from your favorite rockstars!! All items come with signed letters of authentication for your collection!

Did you know?

-Between four million and six million pets are euthanized every year because they are homeless.
– An animal in a shelter is killed every 1.5 seconds.
– Only one animal in 10 born in the U.S. gets a good home that lasts a lifetime.
– There is a direct correlation between animal abuse and neglect and child abuse and neglect.

FUR & FEATHER ANIMAL SANCTUARY is a 501(c)(3) that was organized exclusively for charitable, and educational purposes, more specifically for helping homeless and un-wanted animals with medical care, adoption in a no-kill safe environment.

For more information go to www.furfeather.org (almost finished) or visit them on Facebook now! Just search for Fur & Feather Animals Sanctuary and look for the happy Pit-bull~ To donate to the cause use Paypal and email to donations@furfeather.org or email to get address to send checks~

With the world currently in the grip of Twitter mania, who can blame guitar legend Slash for getting in on the act, too?

The frizzy-haired, Velvet Revolver axeman, who is busy recording in LA, has just Tweeted that Ozzy Osbourne will be making a very special guest appearance on his forthcoming solo album.

If that wasn’t cool enough, Slash and some famous friends, including Ozzy and Led Zeppelin drummer Jason Bonham, will be making a headline appearance at Norway’s Quart Festival, which takes place Kristiansand on June 30 – July 4.

“I will be doing a few big shows in support of my solo album at some point,” Slash reveals. “I’m sure there will be some other gigs here and there as well, so stay tuned.”

Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Serj Tankian, Hellyeah, Sevendust and Shadows Fall, among others, are scheduled to appear at this year’s one-off Ozzfest, to be held Aug. 9 at Pizza Hut Park in Dallas.

Other main stage acts on the bill are Cavalera Conspiracy, Apocalyptica, In This Moment and an all-star tribute to late Pantera guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. Second stage acts are Devildriver, Kingdom of Sorrow, Soilent Green, Witchcraft and Goatwhore. The Sword, Drowning Pool and Rigor Mortis will handle duties on the third stage.

“We’re going to be a stadium destination festival for now — we have gone past doing the sheds every summer,” says Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, who is producing Ozzfest with AEG Live. “We’ve given everyone else the blueprint and we have to keep evolving Ozzfest. This is just the beginning; AEG Live and I have a lot of new ideas for Ozzfest.”

Ozzfest will be Osbourne’s only concert performance this summer. Tickets for the one-day festival will go on sale May 31 via Ozzfest.com; prices have not yet been announced.

Last year, the Osbournes created a stir when they revealed the Live Nation-produced Ozzfest would be a sponsor-driven, free event, and acts would be asked to play without being paid. The 25-date amphitheater tour featured such artists as Lamb Of God, Hatebreed and Lordi, among others

If you’re not already an Ozzfan, JOIN NOW for access to these presales and more!

OZZY IN-STORE IN MINNESOTA!
Buy the Ozzy Osbourne “Black Rain” CD and get a wristband that will secure your place in line to meet him. *While supplies last. Each person in line will have an opportunity to take a picture with Ozzy.

I often wonder why established artists like Ozzy Osbourne subject themselves to full cover albums. Does Ozzy really need the money that badly? Ozzy’s Under Cover CD only left me scratching my head.

Most of these tracks were previously released in the Prince of Darkness box set.

Unfortunately, they released this compilation as a a separate CD for those of us that found the price point on the box set too steep. Sadly, they should have stayed there.

I have nothing against Ozzy. I think he is a hard rock/ heavy metal legend. With that being said, this is not the kind of material that I would expect to hear from. Most of the tracks on this CD are performed better by the original artists.

There are a couple of stand out tracks on this CD ( Mississippi Queen, 21st Century Schizoid Man), but most of the material on this CD is pointless.

Mississippi Queen

Two decent tracks out of thirteen, and dismal track listing at that. This is a CD for those trying fill their Ozzy collections and nothing more. I doubt you will spin it twice.

Ozzy Osbourne returns with his 9th studio CD, and his first full studio effort with new material since 2001’s Down to Earth.

His band mates this time around are Zakk Wylde on guitar, Rob “Blasko” Nicholson (Rob Zombie) on bass, and Mike Bordin (Faith No More) on drums.

I must admit that my first impression with Black Rain, is that this is the heaviest Ozzy disc in years. Zakk Wylde has been wanting to something heavy with Ozzy for a long time, and was pretty disgusted with the writing on Down to Earth. On that record, Zakk Wylde played on all of the songs, but did not have any writing credits. Zakk Wylde co-wrote eight of the 10 tunes on Black Rain. The end result is a far heavier disc, and probably the closest thing to Ozzy’s 1995 disc, Ozzmosis.

The first track, Not Going Away starts off with a monstrous, Black Sabbath type of riff. This track gets better with each listen.

The track, I Don’t Wanna Stop is getting airplay just about every where now, and Ozzy is playing this live in various TV programs, in an effort to promote Black Rain. I agree with what seems to be the majority opinion on this song. I love this track!

The title track, Black Rain is a mid tempo track with a heavy bass sound; and a cool song that is nearly a throw back to early 80’s Ozzy. I can see this track being a hit on the radio, easily.

A nice change of pace is the number Lay Your World on Me on which Ozzy’s voice is the most powerful instrument. On this low tempo track, Blasko’s bass is mixed louder than Zakk’s guitar 95% of the time, but it comes across sounding very cool.

The Almighty Dollar is kind of weird to me. This sounds like Ozzy trying to do a Nine Inch Nails song. Its not all bad, but it has some strange music elements to it. I like the heavy parts, but when this song gets a little bouncy, it doesn’t work. At least not for me.

11 Silver is an extremely upbeat sounding song, but is different from anything I recall Ozzy doing in the past. The bass groove is extremely springy, and Zakk Wylde’s guitar solo in the center is great! I didn’t like this song at first, but its growing on me with every listen. In 2007, its hard to make Ozzy sound fresh, but this is pretty damn good attempt to do so.

Civilize the Universe reminds me a lot of the sound Rob Zombie’s band has. Blasko really shows his influence in this song.This is another good, foot-stomping, rock and roll hit.

Here for You is a piano based ballad that is actually very good. I have heard Ozzy do these type of songs before, but I think this one is one of the better ones in a long time.

Something about Coundown’s Begun reminds me quite a bit of Lynch era Dokken. The whole guitar and heavy bass riff is very Dokken like. Zakk Wylde and Blasko reproduce a sound that is very complimentary of one of the best metal tandem’s of 80’s style hard rock (Lynch and Pilson). Very cool!

Trapdoor is probably my 2nd most favorite song on Black Rain. Zakk Wylde’s riff on this track has a real mean sound to it. This is the kind of song that could make me go to Ozzfest, so I can see it live. The whole bass and drum sound in the center of the track are cool as hell. What an amazing way to close out this record!

On my first listen to this disc, I wasn’t extremely impressed with this disc. Successive listens have changed my mind. I keep hearing and noticing different things each time I listen to it. Ozzy Osbourne sings his ass off on this disc, and sounds great all throughout Black Rain. The Zakk Wylde neigh sayers will be happy to know that, Zakk does not over use the pinch harmonics on this record. Zakk’s playing is stellar, end of story. Blasko and Mike Bordin are not fill in musicians. They are excellent additions to Ozzy’s band, and truly add to the music on this record. I hope this group stays together for another record. Until then, I will enjoy this record repeatedly. Hopefully Ozzy wont make us wait six more years for another one.

Don’t even hesitate to pick this disc up! If you are an Ozzy fan, it is required listening!